This invention relates generally to electrical connectors and more specifically to covers for electrical connectors which have a plurality of electric wires extending out of an end of an insulator body. This invention may be used in combination with the invention of my copending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 09/490,225 filed Mar. 8, 1990.
It is already known to provide covers which are attached to insulator bodies of electrical connectors to protect and route several electric wires extending out of the insulator body. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,765 granted to Earl A. Gilmore and Kenneth E. Merklen Apr. 1, 1975 which discloses a connector cover which is constructed of sheet material and shaped to cooperate with a tying strap for the electric wires. The cover has interengaging tab assemblies at each end which serve to interconnect the cover with a connector block or insulator body. The major drawback of this design is that the assembly of the cover to the insulator body is tedious and time consuming.
It is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,733 granted to John E. Thomas May 23, 1967 to use a "quick disconnect" bayonet joint in an electrical connector to fasten a collar associated with one connector to a cap member associated with another connector. More specifically as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the collar member has lugs which are received in diametrical slots of the cover member to provide a bayonet connection which is maintained intact by a resilient washer disposed in the open end of the cap member. While this arrangement does not require tedious and time consuming steps to connect the electrical connectors to each other, the arrangement nevertheless has a drawback in that the arrangement requires manufacture of a separate resilient washer or the like and its prior assembly into one of the electrical connectors to maintain the integrity of the bayonet joint once the electrical connectors are connected.